Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

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Introduction

The main Switchboard menu

When you load the completed example file (CollectibleMiniCars.accdb), you’ll see the

main Switchboard menu shown in Figure FM.1. This Switchboard contains buttons that display

the main areas of the system.

FIGURE FM.1

The Collectible Mini Cars main Switchboard menu, which allows users to open various forms and reports

These main areas include

l Products: All the products sold by Collectible Mini Cars. The models are separated by

category (cars, trucks, motorcycles, and so on), and include a description, make, model

year, and other details, such as the color and model scales (1:24, 1:32, and so on).

l Sales: This button displays an Invoice form that lets CMC enter sales information. The

Sales table (tblSales) allows for an unlimited number of line items on an invoice, and

each item is selected from information stored in the Products table.

l Reports: Any good application contains a number of reports. This button opens a second

form showing all the reports available in the CMC database.

Data tables

Data is the most important part of any system and in Access (as well as every other database-man-

agement system), data is arranged into data structures known as tables. Tables help define the

arrangement of the data, as well as hold the data itself. Tables are related to each other in order to

pass data back and forth and to help assemble the chaos of data into well-defined and well-format-

ted information.

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